Bolero by Maurice Ravel

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 4 · Sections: 12

Form: Lead-in → A Section → A Section ×8 → B Section → A Section

Where these chords come from: a lead sheet of this public-domain song, contributed by a musician to the Wikifonia archive and preserved in the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). It describes the song as written, not any particular recording. This page shows that lead sheet as-is: the analysis below is generated directly from it by code, not written by AI. Consecutive repeats of a chord are shown once, and the piano voicings are our playable arrangement of each chord symbol, not a note-for-note transcription.

Section by section

Lead-in

• C
  I

A Section 1

• C
  I

A Section 2

Same chords as A Section 1.

A Section 3

Same chords as A Section 1.

A Section 4

Same chords as A Section 1.

A Section 5

Same chords as A Section 1.

A Section 6

Same chords as A Section 1.

A Section 7

Same chords as A Section 1.

A Section 8

Same chords as A Section 1.

A Section 9

Same chords as A Section 1.

B Section

• E
  III

A Section 10

• G7 – C – Fm – C
  V7 – I – iv – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Fm (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). Community-contributed lead sheet (chord symbols over the melody) from the Wikifonia archive, MIT licence. Title and songwriter credit as written on the sheet.
• Section names: detected by code from repeated 8-, 12- and 16-bar phrases (letters such as A and B mark different phrases; a phrase that comes back keeps its letter). Lead sheets rarely print section names.
• Not verified: only one lead sheet of this song is available, so it hasn't been cross-checked.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.